Thursday, September 4, 2014

Since I first posted about mindset research in 2010 there has been much discussion and application of this in relation to mathematics teaching and learning so I figured I'd update things with new references. One of the most impressive efforts is that of mathematics teacher Helen Hindle who has created Growth Mindset Mathematics that's chock full of great information and lesson activities! Jo Boaler, mathematics educator at Stanford, has written extensively about mindset and mathematics and has an online course about mathematics learning built around the idea of having a growth mindset. And the research base has continued to grow including this 2014 study showing positive impacts on student achievement after a 30-minute online intervention. Finally, this TEDx Talk by Eduardo Briceno about Growth Mindset gives a great framing of this concept and how it can powerfully drive learning.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The ideas in the spreadsheet below came from conversations with mathematics education faculty in the California State University system. It's far from a comprehensive list but is at least a start! You can add your ideas using this form.

Monday, April 14, 2014

At the NCTM Annual Meeting in New Orleans last week I had the chance to talk briefly with a few folks about their use of technology that supports meaningful mathematics learning. Some criteria we agreed were important to keep in mind when deciding whether to use technology and, if so, which technology, included:

Allows students to connect mathematics to aspects of their culture/community

Puts students into the role of creators rather than consumers of knowledge

Resources that reflect some number of these criteria were shared in a Google Form, the results of which are below. These represent the specific interests of the group I was talking with and the list is of course not comprehensive. If you'd like to contribute additional resources, the form is here.

Friday, February 14, 2014

I was asked recently by some colleagues for details about California's piloting of the Smarter Balanced assessment in spring 2014 and thought others might find the information I compiled helpful. Feel free to add comments/clarifications. And if you spot any outright misstatements, certainly let me know!

As best I understand it, the Field Test in California in spring 2014 will be only computer-based and non-adaptive (each student gets a fixed
set of items) for the purpose of testing out item validity and
reliability. From the 2015-16 school year, the online assessments will be
adaptive (with a student’s response on one item determining what item they get
next). Also, from 2015-16 for a total of three years there will be a
paper-based version of the assessment (non-adaptive with scores somehow equated
to the online, adaptive tests) for schools that lack the technology to conduct
the test online. There is a Technology Readiness Tool each district is
supposed to use to gauge their capacity to support students’ access to the
assessments:

Students will either use computers with a mouse or other
point-and-click device OR a tablet device with touchscreen. Each device must
have the Smarter Balanced secure browser installed
to be used for testing. Specific technology requirements are found here
(along with other field test information).

Students are permitted to have access to certain tools, both
embedded within the secure browser, and non-embedded. This includes
scratch paper on which to do mathematical work and, from grade 6, graph
paper. Any scratch work is to be discarded after the test and is not used
for scoring purposes. The full list of tools is here but note each state
may make modifications to this.

Update (12:45 PM 10/11/12)
The session was well-attended with about 100 folks in the room. I invited them to enter my Socrative Teacher classroom by installing the Socrative Student Clicker app before we got started. Over 30 participants did so and were able to provide input in addition to those who spoke out verbally during the session.

I was impressed with the turnout and the participation. My intent was to provide food for thought about the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice as well as what it means, in general, to think about teaching 21st century learners. I hope the attendees found it to be 60 minutes well-spent!

One slide I didn't have as much time to comment on as I had planned is titled "Flipping Out" and features a link to a Kahn Academy video. The point I was going to make is that if "flipping" one's classroom is simply a matter of moving lectures to homework and doing homework in class, we're not addressing the real need to transform what teaching and learning are all about. It's more than rearranging the same traditional lessons that focus primarily on skills and procedures. We need to be looking for ways to shift teaching and learning to place students' reasoning and sense making at the center of all that takes place. Two recent columns discuss this quite well (better than I am able to do!), so I encourage you to check these out:

Math Education SmartBrief

About Me

I am a National Board Certified Teacher of mathematics and a professor of education at CSU Fullerton. This blog is aimed at sharing ideas about helping teachers and students to make sense of mathematics. Visit my professional homepage at http://ellismathed.weebly.com/about.html